Consumers continue to rapidly expand the market for communication devices, particularly mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, laptop computers, pagers, personal digital assistants, and the like, in large part because of the rich set of services and convenience of mobility. Not surprisingly, to remain competitive, telecommunications service providers are continually challenged to develop services that offer greater convenience and seamlessness as consumers communicate using a variety of devices—ranging from mobile phones to wired handsets. Yet, the prevalence of communications among a variety of devices in different circumstances may at times prove inconvenient, and even dangerous. For example, a user may be driving a vehicle, whereby the user is required to input a string of digits to initiate a call, thereby increasing the likelihood of distractions while driving. Also, at times, the user may not be immediately able to initiate or answer a call because the user cannot physically operate the phone—e.g., a call is received when the user's hands are full or preoccupied with a task—but, yet is within audible distance from the phone. During such situations, the call is simply lost. Traditional hands-free (or speaker phone) operation can be useful under these circumstances, but such hands-free communication would need to be established prior to the user encountering the situation in the first place.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach that can efficiently and effectively provide communication services in a wide variety of contexts.